Soar
by St. Genevieve
Summary: The Doctor thought he'd never love again after losing River, that is, until he met Guinevere La Feat. Gwen is strong, brave, and beautiful. She's the Doctor's match in every way. The only problem is that she's from another dimension where he's just a character on a popular TV show and doesn't know how to control her new powers. Follow their adventures through time and space.
1. Chapter 1: Jumping is Cool

Chapter 1: Jumping is Cool

The Doctor was having a very bad decade. His dearest friends were dead. His wife was gone too. Everything was gone. Everything was dead and lost but him. He was forever. Amy and Rory were dust and bones while he was cursed with an eternity of living.

How he envied the humans. Their mortality was such a gift. They could be born, live, and die, while he was saddled with the curse of immortality. Everyone he had ever loved was gone. Even his own people, the ones who could have lived forever, were gone. He was alone.

He'd been going about his business, not investigating at all, when the girl appeared. There was a flash of bright, golden light and then the girl was there. She was all angles and curves, sharp cheekbones and round hips; a golden waterfall of hair and pale elbows; violet eyes and creamy skin. And all up and down her arms were swirling golden tattoos, strange marks that tickled his memory.

She was wearing twenty-first century clothes, short pajama shorts and a black tank top. Her eyes were wide with disbelief. Her bare feet began to turn pink with cold and she shivered violently.

Then the carriage rounded the corner; the poor girl was frozen with shock. The carriage was getting closer and the Doctor could see the girl couldn't move. He didn't have a choice; he had to save her.

He moved, running across the street, scooping her up in his arms, and flinging them both into the snow drift on the side of the road, cradling her body close to his own and pillowing her as they fell. The girl gasped at the impact and she finally spoke.

"What the hell?"

Her voice was musical, with an American accent and a slight southern twang. He guessed Texas.

"Hello," the Doctor said, trying not to notice her warm curviness. He was married! kinda.

"Are you real?" she asked. There were dark circles under her strange violet eyes.

"Yes. I'm the Doctor," he said.

She made a sound, somewhere between a laugh and a gasp. "Doctor who?"

And with that she fainted in his arms.

0~0~0

The doctor carried the girl to Madame Vastra's home. The soft weight of her in his arms was strange. Where he touched her his skin tingled. It wasn't unpleasant, just weird. He wondered where he'd seen the marks on her arms before.

Jenny helped him get the girl to the couch. "What happened to her?" she asked.

"She just appeared in the street," the Doctor explained.

"No, not that. She's got some bruises on her arms. But she's obviously not from here. Maybe she'll tell us when she wakes," Jenny said.

A few moments later the girl sat up rubbing her head. "Lily, I just had the weirdest dream. I was in Victorian London and I met the Doctor. Isn't that just insane…"

She trailed off as she took in the drawing room, the young woman before her, and the Time Lord. Her eyes widened and she stared at the Doctor with a look somewhere between fascination and fear.

"Oh god. I'm insane. I've gone crazy. I'm hallucinating. This is a dream. This can't be real. The Doctor isn't real." She pressed the heels of her hands into her eyes as she began to hyperventilate. "This isn't real. He's not real. It's just a show. The Doctor isn't real. When I look back he'll be gone."

She raised her head. Her face was very pale.

"Hello," the Time Lord said, stepping forward. "I'm the Doctor."

The golden-haired girl stood and marched up to him. She poked him, hard, first in the shoulder, then the chest, and then she poked his chin. "Impossible," she breathed, pressing her ear to his sternum.

The Doctor stood very still as she listened to his heartbeats. He didn't know how she could know who he was. He didn't know why she would want to listen to his heartbeats. Carefully, he pushed her back. His hands rested lightly on her shoulders.

"Who are you?" he asked.

She tilted her head to the side, her violet eyes alight with curiosity. "I'm Gwen. And Terra was totally right. Your chin is kind of funny. So is your neck. You look like a baby giraffe," she finished with a giggle. "Tumblr got that right."

"Tumblr? I don't understand," Jenny interjected.

"Perhaps she is a hostile life form. Shall I fetch the swords?" Strax asked from the doorway.

Gwen stared at the alien. "Oh my god! It's a demented potato! This dream just gets weirder and weirder. But since it's a dream-"

She threw her arms around the Doctor and pressed her lips to his. For a moment he flailed awkwardly, not quite sure where to put his hands. Her lips were several degrees too hot, like she was burning with fever. Her hands, which ran through his hair, were hot as well. Finally, when his hands stopped flapping around in shock, he put them on her scorching bare shoulders and pushed her away.

"You…you kissed me," the lord of Time spluttered.

"Yeah…funny what people do in dreams…"

And for the second time that day, Gwen fainted in his arms.


	2. Chapter 2: The Marks of a Jumper

Chapter 2: The Marks of a Jumper

~Gwen's POV~

_I stared, open mouthed, at the wondrous place before my eyes. It was a great garden, filled with beautiful flowers, lovely trees, and bright colors. There were plants I had never seen before and plants I had. Roses, lavender, lilies, jasmine, hibiscus, and orchids bloomed everywhere. Plumaria, apple, and other fruit and flower bearing trees spread their branches overhead. The scent of growth filled the air. _

_And in the center of this stunning garden was a huge white marble palace. It had the look of an ancient Greek temple, all pillars and statues. The smell of incense wafted from between the great, snowy columns. _

_I mounted the pale steps and walked between the pillars of marble and into the inner sanctuary. The floor and ceiling were decorated with colorful mosaics that seemed to move with delicate swirls and dancing images of dragons and unicorns and characters from novels. The effect was bewitching. _

_On the far side of the building five statues. The first was of a young woman with a body of ivory and long hair made out of a red-orange substance. The second also had an ivory body, but the flowing hair was made from sapphire. The third's body was ivory and her hair was emerald and a rich brown color from a stone I could not name. The fourth had an ivory body too, with hair of diamond and aquamarine. The fifth, and last, had a body of ivory like the others and hair of gold; her eyes were amethyst. _

_All the statues were clothed in real fabric of bright colors, leading me to believe that they had been sculpted nude. The one with gold hair drew my eye; she looked like me. I wondered, vaguely, why a statue in such a strange place had a sculpture that looked like me. _

"_Hello, Gwen," a familiar voice said. _

_I turned. "Lily?" _

_My red-headed, amber-eyed cousin grinned at me and opened her arms. I ran to her and breathed in the scent of campfire smoke and brown sugar that she always carried with her. "What is this place?" I asked. _

"_The world from which we come, Guinevere," she answered. _

"_I don't understand." _

"_No. I didn't either when I started Jumping. It takes a while to get used to it. Gwen, you're special," she said. _

"_Special?" _

"_Yeah. You're not human. Neither am I. Nor is Ariel, Terra, of Hannah. The five of us, our circle of cousins, we're different. We're Guardians of Creation. But most just call us Jumpers. See, we can travel using the force of our wills from place to place. We can go from dimension to dimension, world to world, even time to time if we wanted to. That's where we get the nickname 'Jumper'." She stopped and took a breath. "Do you understand?" _

"_Kind of. What's with the statues?" I wondered aloud. _

"_Those are us. The one with red hair is me. The one with blue hair is Hannah. The one with green and brown hair is Terra. The one with light blue hair is Ariel. The one with gold hair is you. Each of us stands for an element. You're spirit. I'm fire. I'm the first to Jump; you're the last," she explained. _

"_Okay. So me meeting the Doctor wasn't a dream? That was real?" My cheeks burned. I had actually kissed the Doctor! _The Doctor!

"_Yep. Now look at your hands," she ordered. _

_I did as she asked. My pale arms, from my fingertips up to my elbows, were decorated with delicate swirls of gold. It looked like tattoos, only so much more beautiful. I touched the marks gently, tracing them with my fingers in wonder. "What are they?" _

_Lily's grin widened. "They're your Marks. They mark you as a Jumper. As your power grows, so do they. Soon they'll spread up your arms and then to other parts of your body." _

_She showed me her marks, which were red and orange designs that looked like dancing, leaping flames. They licked up her arms and disappeared into the sleeves of her white robes. They were beautiful. _

"_Now, little cousin, you must wake up. The Doctor will need you," she said. _

_The dream faded into darkness. _

0~0~0

I woke with a strangled gasp. My arms were still covered with the golden Marks. Maybe it wasn't a dream…

I slipped out from under the blanket I'd been covered with and stood. My body ached like I'd been trampled by a dozen Doctor Who fans on their way to a convention. My head felt cloudy. Had I really kissed the eleventh Doctor?

"Yes. You did kiss me. Mind telling me why?"

The Doctor's voice sent me spinning around to face him. He was sitting in a chair by the bed. How had I not noticed him?

"Did I say that out loud? The thing about the kissing?" My cheeks warmed.

He nodded, stood, and straightened his bow tie. I couldn't help but grin.

"Nice bow tie."

"Thanks. Bow ties are cool."

I rolled my eyes. "Yeah. Just like bunk beds, Stetsons, and tweed jackets. Super cool. Except, oh wait, none of those things are cool unless you're a) a kid, b) a cowboy, or c) a professor."

He moved forward until we stood about a foot apart. His eyes narrowed. "Who are you?"

"I'm Guinevere La Feat. And I'm a Jumper." 


	3. Chapter 3:Of Walls and Locks

Chapter 3: Of Walls and Locks

"I'm Guinevere La Feat. And I'm a Jumper."

"A Jumper? That's hilarious. Jumpers don't exist. They're just stories told to make the evil beings in the universe wet their beds at night. Jumpers aren't real," he said with a snort.

"Just like where I come from you're not real. You're just a character from a popular British TV show. And yet here you are. And here I am. Both as real as can be." She swayed, exhaustion evident on her face.

"You're tired," the Doctor said, gently helping her sit on the bed.

"Yeah. Jumping across dimensions can do that to a person." She eyed him curiously. "If you really are the Doctor, where are Amy and Rory?"

A look of pain flashed across his face. "How do you know about Amy and Rory?"

She shrugged. "They're characters. I always liked Amy. She had lots of fire in her. I never shipped her with you though. It seemed a little strange. I didn't mind reading fanfiction about you two though. There's some interesting stuff. And now I'm rambling. Sorry."

"It's fine. They…they're gone. It's just me now. The mad man and his box," he said.

Gwen touched his hand. "I'm so sorry. I'd forgotten. But maybe…don't be sad that it's over. Be happy that it happened. I don't think Amy would want you to be sad. Celebrate their existence by saving others. Honor them by being the best hero you can be."

"Is that what I am? A hero?"

She smiled at the Doctor. "Yeah. You're a hero."

0~0~0~0

The days went by and soon turned to weeks. The Doctor and Guinevere got to know each other. Every afternoon he would go to Madame Vastra's, where the girl was staying, and visit with her.

They talked about everything, from why he hated beans to how she passed her history mid-term. She was smart, funny, and interesting. But there was something lurking underneath the happy exterior. He could tell.

The bruises on her arms and back that Jenny had seen when she first arrived yellowed and healed. Gwen was more likely to speak to people who weren't the Doctor when she went out. She was healing. What had hurt her in the first place, the Doctor didn't know.

"How old are you?" the Doctor asked one day.

"Seventeen. How old are you?" she shot back.

"Over a thousand. Still in high school?"

"Yeah. Going into my senior year once the summers over."

"It was summer where you were?"

She nodded. "Yeah. I stay with my uncle during the summer, and live with my grandparents during the school year."

"Why do you go back and forth? Where are your parents?" He leaned forward, curious.

"My uncle got part time custody. And my parents are dead. My dad died in a car crash when I was twelve. My mom died of cancer when I was fourteen." The way she said it was blunt, like it had happened to someone else. There was nothing to suggest that it bothered her, nothing but the smallest twinge of bitterness in her voice.

The Doctor leaned forward and touched her hand. "I'm sorry."

She shook her head and her walls came up. "It's fine. What day is it?"

"It's the fifteenth of December. Why?"

"No reason. I was just wondering. Well, I'm kinda tired. I think I'll finish that book I was reading. Goodbye, Doctor." Gwen stood and swept from the room.

The Doctor stared after her, confused. _Did I do something wrong?_ Her walls had slowly been coming down, crumbling gently as she let him in. But then they had come right back up, completely confounding him.

As a Time Lord he had a certain level of physic power. Humans were easy to read; they didn't know how to put up strong shields. But Guinevere wasn't like other humans. Her mind was closed off, the mental version of Troy before it was burned to the ground. And Gwen, with her golden hair and bright beauty, was even more beautiful than Helen.

_No! Bad Doctor! Gwen had probably been through some ordeal that made her mind close like a steel trap. You can't think of her that way. She seventeen! And you're over 1000. You can't think that way about her, _the Doctor chastised himself.

He wanted to help her, wanted to be the hero she claimed he was. He wanted to save her from her inner demons. He didn't know how, he didn't even know why, but he was going to help her. He had to.

0~0~0~0

The next day the Doctor came back to Madame Vastra's home with multiple plans. All of them evaporated when Jenny answered the door with a worried expression.

"Doctor, she won't come out of her room. She locked it. Strax offered to but it down but Madame suggested we should wait for you. I think I heard crying from behind the door," Jenny explained.

The Doctor nodded and followed the worried young woman up the stairs and to Gwen's room. The door was locked; he pressed an ear to it. There were sounds of muffled sobbing coming from behind it. "Guinevere?" His voice was soft.

"Go away," she called back.

His sonic buzzed as it worked to unlock the door. "Let me in," he said.

There were sounds of movement from behind the door. "No. Just go away, Doctor."

He sighed and put his screwdriver away.


	4. Chapter 4: Doors and Starting Lines

Chapter 4: Doors and Starting Lines

Gwen's POV:

I was angry and sad and frustrated. I was in Victorian London, in a different universe, and had no way of getting home. Not that I would want to go home or that where I'd come from was even home. But I was trapped in another dimension and had no way of getting where I wanted to be. So, since I had nothing better to do, I glared at the door.

All my life there had been doors opening and closing. I'd had to close doors to survive, to shut off my feelings of pain and fear and sorrow. I locked those emotions away behind a great oak door so they couldn't hurt me. But, on this day, I had to let them out.

The memories came back in flashes as they always did on December 16th. The sound of car wheels and my mother's scream ringing in my ears. The feeling as the other car hit, my head aching, and the sickening crunch of metal as our car hit a huge tree head on. The way my dad's limp hand slipped out from underneath the white sheet and the scent of blood. My mother's grip on my hand loosening.

The memories tormented me as my inner demons pushed the doors open wide. It hurt to think about how my parents had died in that horrific car crash. I had been thirteen and I had remembered every terrible second.

The room was silent as a tomb and my tears slid noiselessly down my cheeks. And then a sound, wheezing and mechanical. I knew that sound. It was the sound of never ending hope, impossible dreams, and limitless adventure. It was the sound of the TARDIS.

The blue police box materialized in my room, the doors swung open, and the Doctor walked out. His bow tie was crooked, his cheeks flushed, and his hair was a mess. I'd never seen anyone more handsome in my entire life.

I turned away. "I told you to go away. Most people would have listened."

"I'm not most people. Do I even look like most people?" His voice softened. "You were crying. Why?"

"Today is the day my parents died."

"Oh." He sat down on the bed beside me. "I'm sorry."

"Yeah. I was thirteen. My parents were driving me home from a music lesson and the roads were icy. Some idiot rammed into the car. It went into a ditch and hit a tree. My dad was killed on impact. My mom died that night. I was the only one who survived." My voice was hollow.

The Doctor put his arm around me. "I am so, so sorry."

I leaned against him and shut my eyes. He was warm and smelled nice, like mint and paper and ink and machine oil and some kind of alien spice that I couldn't name. The fabric of his jacket was soft under my cheek.

"I wish I could make this better for you, but I'm not sure how," he said awkwardly. "I wish I could dry your tears."

"Would you tell me a story?" The question was whispered so softly I almost thought he hadn't heard me.

"What story shall I tell?"

"Any story. Just make it distracting."

"Alright. Once upon a time there was a boy named Rory Williams…"

I was asleep almost instantly.

0~0~0~0

When I woke up the first thing that registered was that I was kind of cold. Not uncomfortably so, just a bit chilly. The second thing was that my feet were hanging off something. The third was that someone had a very warm arm around my shoulders.

I opened my eyes slowly. A blue and green ball hung suspended before us surrounded by inky blackness. There were bright points, balls of color that were suspended further away. Furthest away was a great ball of golden fire. There were silver points all around. And there was a silver-white orb floating beside the blue-green ball. It was the moon. And the blue-green ball was earth. We were in space.

It was so beautiful, like a painting in an art museum. The darkness and the light danced; the stars twinkled. I wanted to stay there forever, to simply watch the planets and the stars with the Doctor's arm around me. The grief that I carried inside me like a knife lessened and then was gone behind its door. Suddenly I felt lighter.

"Do you like it?" The hope in his voice filled me with an unknown feeling.

"I love it. It's the most beautiful thing I've ever seen. Thank you," I whispered.

"Do you want to see anything else? Anywhere in all of time and space. Anything you want, if it's within my power to give or show," he promised.

"Really? Anything?"

He grinned and nodded.

"Then take me somewhere amazing."

The smile lit by the sun said it all. He wanted me to come with him. He wanted to show me the universe. He _would_ show me all the wonders he could find. I was going to be the Doctor's companion.

That was the day my life with the Doctor began.

0~0~0~0

Life with the Doctor was unlike anything I'd ever experienced. The days were filled with adventure. One day we were being worshiped as the saviors of an alien civilization. The next we were running for our lives so as not to get our feet cut off by the Feet Eaters of Orthon Five. There was never a dull moment.

The Doctor grinned at me from the TARDIS controls. He was pressing buttons and madly rushing around. "Today we're going to visit one of my favorite people. Granted, I haven't met him yet, but it should be fun." Almost as an afterthought he added, "Provided we don't get impaled."

I raised an eyebrow. "Impaled? Where are we going and why would we go there if there's a chance we might get impaled?"

"Why, we're going to meet dear, old Vlad. Doesn't that sound like fun?"

"Vlad as in Vlad the Impaler. Vlad as in the guy who impaled his enemies with sharp stakes and drank their blood? Vlad as in the guy who started vampire legends? Vlad as in the guy_ Dracula_ was based off of?" I asked.

He was wearing his goofy 'let's-waltz-right-into-danger-and-try-to-get-ourselves-killed' grin. "Who else?"

"Doctor, you're going to get impaled."

"No, I won't! I am perfectly capable of staying out of trouble and not getting impaled. By the way, isn't impale a great word. Almost as great as ubiquitous. Love a good word. Almost as much as I love running."

I rolled my eyes. "We're going to die."

"Oi! I got us off of Orthon Five, didn't I?"

"No. I got us off of Orthon Five and saved your sorry butt with my quick thinking. You're the one who showed off your feet and made them want to eat you," I corrected him.

"How was I to know that they ate feet?"

"They are literally called 'Feet Eaters', Doctor. But fine, if you want us to get impaled, I'll play along. I'm going to end up saving your ass though. I can already tell," I said with an affectionate grin.

He huffed. "I resent that assumption, Miss La Feat." The TARDIS landed. "Now come along, Gwen. And do try to stay out of trouble."


	5. Chapter 5: Meetings

Chapter 5: Meetings

The Doctor was starting to really like Gwen. She was funny and interesting and smart. Her eyes were bright and her smile was warm. And, when he'd hugged her, he'd noticed her hair smelled really nice, like honey and vanilla.

What was it about her? He felt like he had always known her, like they'd been friends forever. And something about her Marks, the spiraling golden tattoos that adorned her pale arms, tickled his memory. Where had he seen them? Why were they familiar?

Her inhumanness seemed so obvious to him, and yet she insisted that she wasn't special. She didn't understand what it was to be a Jumper, a chosen Guardian of Creation. Her soul was old. All the legends of her kind said that her spirit had been there at the very beginning, the start of everything. Not even the Time Lords had very much information about that time.

Everyone, every myth or religion on every planet had some kind of explanation for how the universe was created, but no one was really sure. No one could remember back that far. But many of the original mythological figures had been female, probably because of the Jumpers. They had been the first creatures ever, or so the stories told.

If that was true, then Guinevere's soul was old, millions of years old. Her essence had been created eons before he was even born. It was strange to think that this vulnerable, innocent young girl had a spirit that was older than history, older than time. It was extraordinary to think that the ancients had bowed down and worshipped the first incarnation of the young woman who looked at him like he hung the moon and stars.

Even when she was clumsy, she was graceful. There was a kind of magnetism that drew him to her like a moth to a flame. She would stumble; he would catch her. The Doctor didn't understand it. He'd loved many before this young woman; little more than a girl, she had come along, with something about her that made Gwen different. She was unlike anyone he had ever traveled with. She was more of a mystery than any other.

"Doctor?" Her voice, with that alluring slightly Texan accent, shook him out of his thoughts.

He turned and his heart skipped a beat. "Gwen…"

"Do I look okay?"

Did she ever. Her long hair was pulled back from her face in a braid that hung over her shoulder. She wore a long dress the color of midnight in the fashion that had been popular back in the day. Its hem swept the floor and the sleeves were loose and puffed slightly until they came to her wrists and tightened like bracelets. The neckline scooped, the tight bodice embroidered with silver thread and pearls. The skirt flared out from her hips and was also sewn with silver.

His mouth was suddenly very dry. "You look…beautiful," he said honestly.

She blushed. "Thanks. I found it on a chair in the TARDIS wardrobe. It seemed like the right sort of dress for going to a court. Do you really think I look pretty?"

He swallowed hard and nodded. She smiled and his hearts did a relay race in his chest. "Let's go meet the Impaler," he said, holding out his arm.

Guinevere slipped her arm through his. He could feel the warmth of her hand through the fabric of his jacket. "This should be fun," she said half to herself as they walked out the TARDIS doors.

The first thing he registered as he stepped from the TARDIS was that they were not, in fact, in Transylvania. They were, instead, standing on a green riverbank before a great palace. Flags flew from the ramparts, the flags that the Doctor knew well. They were the flags of Henry VIII, one of the Doctor's old friends.

"This isn't the court of Count Dracula is it?" Gwen sounded amused.

The Doctor sighed, ran his fingers through his hair, and turned to the TARDIS. "No. This is England in what I'd guess to be the 1520's. Why would we be here?"

"1520, huh? Wasn't that during Henry VIII's rule? Which wife is he with? Catherine?" Gwen asked.

"Catherine, but his mistress right now is probably Mary Boleyn. I met her a few years ago. She was a sweet little thing, with blonde hair like yours, but lighter and not quite the gold you have. I wonder how old she is now…" he trailed off, half-lost in memories.

"I read a book about her once. She had a really interesting life. In the end she was happy. Can I meet her?" The Doctor recognized the excitement in Gwen's voice.

"Of course." And together they walked up to the doors of King Henry's court.

0~0~0~0

Mary Boleyn couldn't seem to stop smiling. She grinned down at her embroidery, her hands working carefully without her thinking. Nothing could spoil her mood. She hadn't stopped smiling since the night before when she'd realized her monthly course hadn't come. What if she was pregnant with the King's child? Henry would be overjoyed. Her family would be ecstatic. If it was a boy then the Boleyn family had everything to gain.

But she was getting ahead of herself…and thinking like her cool, calculating sister. She wasn't Anne. She was Mary. She was mistress to the King. She was important. She was beloved of the King. Anne was just the other Boleyn girl. The thought sobered her, but not enough to lessen her smile.

Just then the King entered the Queen's quarters where Mary and the other ladies in waiting were sitting and sewing. Henry flashed a grin at Mary before turning to Catherine. Mary did her best not to let the flash of jealously ruin her mood.

"My Queen, we have visitors," Henry boomed.

A young looking man entered the room. He was tall, but not taller than the King. His hair was brown and flopped into his hazel-green eyes. There was something regal about the way he carried himself. And on his arm was a beautiful young woman.

The young woman, who Mary guessed was barely older than herself, was beautiful. She wore no hood, hat, or hair ornament; her head was bare and her long golden hair was braided and hung down her back. Her skin was pale and the cloth of her dress was the color of midnight and very fine. Her eyes were the strangest shade of violet. She looked like a character out of a story, a fairy maid perhaps.

"Doctor," Queen Katherine said, holding her hand out to be kissed by the visiting man.

The man, evidently he was called Doctor, slipped away from his fair companion and kissed the Queen's hand. "Majesty, you are even more beautiful than when last we met. It is an honor to be in your presence," he said with a grin.

The Queen laughed. "You always were a charmer, my good Doctor. Who is your companion?"

The Doctor held out his hand and the girl took it and curtsied gracefully to the Queen. "This is my fiancé, Guinevere La Feat."

The girl rose, shooting the Doctor a curious glance, and smiled at the Queen. "It is an honor to meet you, your Majesty. I have heard stories of your grace and beauty, but I never realized how very true they were. I am honored to be in the presence of such a good and wonderful queen."

Mary almost didn't believe the word coming out of Guinevere's mouth, but the fair haired girl's face was sincere and honest, her voice earnest. Mary could tell that Katherine was pleased by the girl's genuine flattery, and she couldn't help but like Guinevere's hopeful, open face. This girl would not make a good liar.

"You speak well, Guinevere. Tell me, who taught you to speak like that?" Katherine asked.

"My mother," Guinevere answered.

"Your mother? How interesting. She must have been a very wise and beautiful woman to have a daughter such as you," Katherine complemented.

"Thank you, Majesty." Guinevere inclined her head.

King Henry, suddenly bored with women's talk, said, "Doctor, I have something I would discuss with you without the company of women. Would you walk with me?"

The Doctor smiled and nodded. "I would be honored, my King." He turned to the Queen. "Might my fiancé stay with you and your ladies, my lady?"

Katherine nodded and the Doctor kissed his fiancé's forehead before he was swept away with the King and his entourage. Guinevere gave him one last furtive look that was somewhere between panic and surprise. Then he was gone.

"Mistress Carey, would you be kind enough to entertain the Doctor's fiancé while he and my husband talk. Perhaps you could show her the palace grounds," Katherine suggested.

Mary stood. "As you wish, your Majesty." Then to Guinevere she said, "Come along."

Mary walked with Guinevere slightly behind her. The Boleyn girl was slightly annoyed that her Majesty had chosen her to be a guide. But perhaps the new comer was interesting and not just some bauble that her fiancé displayed on his arm. Not that the Doctor seemed to Mary to be a man like that.

"So you're a Boleyn, right?" Guinevere asked.

"Yes. But I'm married to William Carey." _And mistress to the King._

"Of course. Mary Carey. Mary Boleyn. I've heard of your family. It's an honor to make your acquaintance. I'm Guinevere, but everyone calls me Gwen," the girl said.

Mary couldn't help but like Gwen's honest tone. "You can just call me Mary, if you like. How long have you and the Doctor been betrothed?"

"Not long. It was a bit of a surprise when he asked me. How long have you been married?"

"A few years." _And most of those spent as the King's mistress._

"Any children?"

"No," Mary said softly. "My husband and I don't have any children."

0~0~0~0

King Henry took the Doctor to his private study. He didn't want anyone to know what they were talking about. He didn't want anyone to worry.

"So, Henry, what's this about?" The Doctor sat down across from the King, putting his elbows on the table.

"There have been some disappearances," Henry said.

"What kind?"

"Mostly the daughters of nobles, all of them between the ages of fourteen and seventeen. In all the cases the girls have claimed to be tired and they went up to bed early. When a maid goes into their rooms to wake them, they're gone. There's no blood, no sign of a struggle. The beds are made and the sheets are cold. No one knows where they could go. I must ask for your help, Doctor." The King bowed his head.

"And you shall have it, your Majesty."

"Thank you, Doctor. I shall make sure you have every comfort."


End file.
